CRICKET
Narine under suspicion
West Indian spinner Sunil Narine has again been reported for a suspect bowling action, the latest being at the ongoing Pakistan Super League (PSL) competition in the United Arab Emirates. The off-spinner, whose career has been blighted by the issue, was reported twice during the Champions League Twenty20 in 2014 and twice more the following year. “Sunil Narine has been reported for a suspected illegal bowling action during match between Lahore Qalandars and Quetta Gladiators at Sharjah,” PSL organizers said in on Twitter. “Narine has now been placed on the warning list and may continue to be selected to play and bowl for his team.”
RUNNING
Champions win tower race
The Eiffel Tower was transformed into a sparkling vertical racecourse on Thursday night, as athletes dashed to the top of the iconic Paris monument in an annual race. Puffing, yet in good spirits, 129 runners from five continents made their way, one-by-one, up 1,665 steps to see who could reach the apex of the 324m structure in the fastest time. Piotr Lobodzinski of Poland, who has been the men’s champion since the vertical race first began in 2015, successfully defended his title, reaching the tower’s summit in 7 minutes, 56.67 seconds. In the women’s category, Suzy Walsham of Australia also gained her fourth victory, getting to the top in 10 minutes, 2.7 seconds.
SOCCER
West Ham security beefed up
Extra police are to be employed at West Ham United’s next home game following crowd trouble at their last Premier League match, London Stadium’s Safety Advisory Group (SAG) announced on Thursday following an emergency meeting. Four pitch invasions marred West Ham’s 3-0 home defeat by Burnley on Saturday and the SAG warned that future trouble could lead to ground closures. “Following reassurances that have been given, it is the SAG’s view that the council does not need to use the ultimate sanction, which would see capacity reduced at the venue and spectators excluded. The remaining homes games will be closely monitored,” the SAG said in a statement. “The SAG must make clear that in the event of future disorder, it would seriously consider advising the certifying authority to take forward this sanction.” West Ham’s co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold had to leave the directors’ box for their own safety and the club are seeking life bans for the supporters who ran on to the pitch.
MOTOR SPORTS
Bee attack hospitalizes Foyt
Four-time Indianapolis 500 winner A.J. Foyt was briefly hospitalized on Wednesday after an attack of Africanized killer bees he encountered while working on his ranch. The attack was the second time the 83-year-old has disturbed beehives while working on his bulldozer. He sustained more than 200 stings to his head alone in a 2005 bee attack. A.J. Foyt Enterprises said in a statement that Foyt was released from a Texas hospital once he was stabilized. The team said this second bee attack was more serious than the first because the first encounter made Foyt more sensitive to bee stings. Foyt is to miss this weekend’s Twelve Hours of Sebring in Florida. He was scheduled to be inducted into Sebring’s Hall of Fame yesterday.
When Paddy Dwyer arrived in China in 1976, crowds jostled to catch a glimpse of him and his companions — the first Western soccer team to play in the country. China was emerging from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, and on the brink of market reforms that would take the country from economic stagnation to explosive growth. “All we could see was lines of people running beside our bus, trying to look in the windows, to see their first visual of a white person,” he said. “It was all bicycles,” he said. “There were very few cars to be seen.” Dwyer,
Jannik Sinner continued his quest to become the first man in history to win five Masters 1000 tournaments in a row with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Danish qualifier Elmer Moller at the Madrid Open on Sunday. The world leader extended his winning streak to 19 matches, a run that began early March in Indian Wells, and he has captured 24 consecutive victories at the Masters 1000 level, dating back to the Paris Masters last October. Searching for a maiden title at this level on clay, Sinner advanced to the round of 16 at the Caja Magica with a 77-minute performance against
Some of Clearlake Capital Group’s largest investors are growing increasingly concerned about how much time the company’s co-founders are spending on sports investments as they have struggled to complete the fundraising for the private equity firm’s latest flagship fund. One of Clearlake’s co-founders, Behdad Eghbali, has been spending what some investors described as a disproportionate amount of time on the firm’s investment in Chelsea Football Club in recent months. Now, co-founder Jose E. Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones, are nearing a record US$3.9 billion deal to acquire the San Diego Padres. That personal investment by Feliciano has set off the latest
A new NZ$683 million (US$404 million) stadium that was a symbol of Christchurch’s struggle to rebuild after a deadly earthquake struck the New Zealand city is to host its first match tomorrow in front of a sellout crowd. A magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed 185 people in February 2011 and toppled or damaged buildings, including the city’s old Lancaster Park. The stadium, which hosted international rugby and cricket, and was home to the Canterbury Crusaders, was badly damaged and never reopened. It was bulldozed in 2019 and turned into sports fields, leaving the Crusaders without a permanent home. Government funding for a new stadium was
RSS